the summer sun shines brightly on a deserted stretch of beach suddenly a tiny gray head emerges from the sand then another and another soon the beach is teeming with loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings figure 6.1 although only minutes old the hatchlings know exactly what to do their flippers are not very efficient for moving across the hot sand yet they continue onward instinctively some are quickly snapped up by gulls circling overhead and others become lunch for hungry ghost crabs that dart out of their holes despite these dangers the hatchlings are driven to leave the safety of their nest and find the ocean not far down this same beach Ben and his son Julian paddle out into the ocean on surfboards a wave approaches julian crouches on his board then jumps up and rides the wave for a few seconds before losing his balance he emerges from the water in time to watch his father ride the face of the wave unlike baby sea turtles which know how to find the ocean and swim with no help from their parents we are not born knowing how to swim or surf yet we humans pride ourselves on our ability to learn in fact over thousands of years and across cultures we have created institutions devoted entirely to learning but have you ever asked yourself how exactly it is that we learn what processes are at work as we come to know what we know this chapter focuses on the primary ways in which learning occurs learning objectives by the end of this section you will be able to explain how learned behaviors are different from instincts and reflexes define learning recognize and define three basic forms of learning classical conditioning operant conditioning and observational learning birds build nests and migrate as winter approaches infants suckle for nourishment dogs shake water off wet fur salmon swim upstream to spawn and spiders spin intricate webs what do these seemingly unrelated behaviors have in common they all are unlearned behaviors both instincts and reflexes are innate unlearned behaviors that organisms are born with reflexes are a motor or neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the environment they tend to be simpler than instincts involve the activity of specific body parts and systems eg the knee-jerk reflex and the contraction of the pupil in bright light and involve more primitive centers of the central nervous system eg the spinal cord and the medulla in contrast instincts are innate behaviors that are triggered by a broader range of events such as maturation and the change of seasons they are more complex patterns of behavior involve movement of the organism as a whole eg sexual activity and migration and involve higher brain centers both reflexes and instincts help an organism adapt to its environment and do not have to be learned for example every healthy human baby has a sucking reflex present at birth babies are born knowing how to suck on a nipple whether artificial from a bottle or human nobody teaches the baby to suck just as no one teaches a sea turtle hatchling to move toward the ocean learning like reflexes and instincts allows an organism to adapt to its environment but unlike instincts and reflexes learned behaviors involve change and experience learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience in contrast to the innate behaviors discussed above learning involves acquiring knowledge and skills through experience looking back at our surfing scenario Julian will have to spend much more time training with his surfboard before he learns how to ride the waves like his father learning to surf as well as any complex learning process eg learning about the discipline of psychology involves a complex interaction of conscious and unconscious processes learning has traditionally been studied in terms of its simplest components the associations our minds automatically make between events our minds have a natural tendency to connect events that occur closely together or in sequence associative learning occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment you will see that associative learning is central to all three basic learning processes discussed in this chapter classical conditioning tends to involve unconscious processes operant conditioning tends to involve conscious processes and observational learning adds social and cognitive layers to all the basic associative processes both conscious and unconscious these learning processes will be discussed in detail later in the chapter but it is helpful to have a brief overview of each as you begin to explore how learning is understood from a psychological perspective in classical conditioning also known as Pavlovian conditioning organisms learn to associate events or stimuli that repeatedly happen together we experience this process throughout our daily lives for example you might see a flash of lightning in the sky during a storm and then hear a loud boom of thunder the sound of the thunder naturally makes you jump loud noises have that effect by reflex because lightning reliably predicts the impending boom of thunder you may associate the two and jump when you see lightning psychological researchers study this associative process by focusing on what can be seen and measured behaviors researchers ask if one stimulus triggers a reflex can we train a different stimulus to trigger that same reflex in operant conditioning organisms learn again to associate events a behavior and its consequence reinforcement or punishment a pleasant consequence encourages more of that behavior in the future whereas a punishment deters the behavior imagine you are teaching your dog Hodor to sit you tell Hodor to sit and give him a treat when he does after repeated experiences Hodor begins to associate the act of sitting with receiving a treat he learns that the consequence of sitting is that he gets a doggy biscuit figure 6.2 conversely if the dog is punished when exhibiting a behavior it becomes conditioned to avoid that behavior eg receiving a small shock when crossing the boundary of an invisible electric fence figure 6.2 in operant conditioning a response is associated with a consequence this dog has learned that certain behaviors result in receiving a treat credit Crystal Rolf observational learning extends the effective range of both classical and operant conditioning in contrast to classical and operant conditioning in which learning occurs only through direct experience observational learning is the process of watching others and then imitating what they do a lot of learning among humans and other animals comes from observational learning to get an idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction how might observation help Julian learn to surf as opposed to learning by trial and error alone by watching his father he can imitate the moves that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure can you think of something you have learned how to do after watching someone else all of the approaches covered in this chapter are part of a particular tradition in psychology called behaviorism which we discuss in the next section however these approaches do not represent the entire study of learning separate traditions of learning have taken shape within different fields of psychology such as memory and cognition so you will find that other chapters will round out your understanding of the topic over time these traditions tend to converge for example in this chapter you will see how cognition has come to play a larger role in behaviorism whose more extreme adherence once insisted that behaviors are triggered by the environment with no intervening thought learning objectives by the end of this section you will be able to explain how classical conditioning occurs summarize the processes of acquisition extinction spontaneous recovery generalization and discrimination does the name Ivan Pavlov ring a bell even if you are new to the study of psychology chances are that you have heard of Pavlov and his famous dogs pavlov 1849 to 1936 a Russian scientist performed extensive research on dogs and is best known for his experiments in classical conditioning figure 6.3 as we discussed briefly in the previous section classical conditioning is a process by which we learn to associate stimuli and consequently to anticipate events figure 6.3 ivan Pavlov's research on the digestive system of dogs unexpectedly led to his discovery of the learning process now known as classical conditioning pavlov came to his conclusions about how learning occurs completely by accident pavlov was a physiologist not a psychologist physiologists study the life processes of organisms from the molecular level to the level of cells organ systems and entire organisms pavlov's area of interest was the digestive system hunt 2007 in his studies with dogs Pavlov measured the amount of saliva produced in response to various foods over time Pavlov 1927 observed that the dogs began to salivate not only at the taste of food but also at the sight of food at the sight of an empty food bowl and even at the sound of the laboratory assistant's footsteps salivating to food in the mouth is reflexive so no learning is involved however dogs don't naturally salivate at the sight of an empty bowl or the sound of footsteps these unusual responses intrigued Pavof and he wondered what accounted for what he called the dog's psychic secretions pavlov 1927 to explore this phenomenon in an objective manner Pavlov designed a series of carefully controlled experiments to see which stimuli would cause the dogs to salivate he was able to train the dogs to salivate in response to stimuli that clearly had nothing to do with food such as the sound of a bell a light and a touch on the leg through his experiments Pavlov realized that an organism has two types of responses to its environment one unconditioned unlearned responses or reflexes and two conditioned learned responses in Pavlov's experiments the dogs salivated each time meat powder was presented to them the meat powder in this situation was an unconditioned stimulus UCS a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism the dog salivation was an unconditioned response UCR a natural unlearned reaction to a given stimulus before conditioning think of the dog stimulus and response like this meat powder UCS right pointing arrow salivation UCR in classical conditioning a neutral stimulus is presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus pavlov would sound a tone like ringing a bell and then give the dogs the meat powder figure 6.4 the tone was the neutral stimulus NS which is a stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response prior to conditioning the dogs did not salivate when they just heard the tone because the tone had no association for the dogs tone NS plus meat powder UCS right pointing arrow salivation UCR when Pavlov paired the tone with the meat powder over and over again the previously neutral stimulus the tone also began to elicit salivation from the dogs thus the neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus CS which is a stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus eventually the dogs began to salivate to the tone alone just as they previously had salivated at the sound of the assistant's footsteps the behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus is called the conditioned response crossing in the case of Pavlov's dogs they had learned to associate the tone CS with being fed and they began to salivate CR in anticipation of food tone CS right pointing arrow salivation crossing figure 6.4 four before conditioning an unconditioned stimulus food produces an unconditioned response salivation and a neutral stimulus bell does not produce a response during conditioning the unconditioned stimulus food is presented repeatedly just after the presentation of the neutral stimulus bell after conditioning the neutral stimulus alone produces a conditioned response salivation thus becoming a conditioned stimulus real world application of classical conditioning how does classical conditioning work in the real world consider the case of Moisha who was diagnosed with cancer when she received her first chemotherapy treatment she vomited shortly after the chemicals were injected in fact every trip to the doctor for chemotherapy treatment shortly after the drugs were injected she vomited moisha's treatment was a success and her cancer went into remission now when she visits her oncologist's office every 6 months for a checkup she becomes nauseous in this case the chemotherapy drugs are the unconditioned stimulus UCS vomiting is the unconditioned response UCR the doctor's office is the conditioned stimulus CS after being paired with the UCS and nausea is the conditioned response crossing let's assume that the chemotherapy drugs that Moisha takes are given through a syringe injection after entering the doctor's office Mosha sees a syringe and then gets her medication in addition to the doctor's office Moisha will learn to associate the syringe with the medication and will respond to syringes with nausea this is an example of higher order or second order conditioning when the conditioned stimulus the doctor's office serves to condition another stimulus the syringe it is hard to achieve anything above second order conditioning for example if someone rang a bell every time Moisha received a syringe injection of chemotherapy drugs in the doctor's office Moisha likely will never get sick in response to the bell consider another example of classical conditioning let's say you have a cat named Tiger who is quite spoiled you keep her food in a separate cabinet and you also have a special electric can opener that you use only to open cans of cat food for every meal Tiger hears the distinctive sound of the electric can opener z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z H Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z H Z H Z and then gets her food tiger quickly learns that when she hears Zhz she is about to get fed what do you think Tiger does when she hears the electric can opener she will likely get excited and run to where you are preparing her food this is an example of classical conditioning in this case what are the UCS CS UCR and CR what if the cabinet holding Tiger's food becomes squeaky in that case Tiger hears squeak the cabinet z the electric can opener and then she gets her food tiger will learn to get excited when she hears the squeak of the cabinet pairing a new neutral stimulus squeak with the conditioned stimulus ZZ HZ is called higher order conditioning or second order conditioning this means you are using the conditioned stimulus of the can opener to condition another stimulus the squeaky cabinet figure 6.5 it is hard to achieve anything above second order conditioning for example if you ring a bell open the cabinet squeak use the can opener z and then feed tiger tiger will likely never get excited when hearing the bell alone figure 6.5 in higher order conditioning an established conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus the second order stimulus so that eventually the new stimulus also elicits the conditioned response without the initial conditioned stimulus being presented everyday connection classical conditioning at Stingray City kate and her spouse recently vacationed in the Cayman Islands and booked a boat tour to Stingray City where they could feed and swim with the southern stingrays the boat captain explained how the normally solitary stingrays have become accustomed to interacting with humans about 40 years ago people began to clean fish and cunchch unconditioned stimulus at a particular sandbar near a barrier reef and large numbers of stingrays would swim in to eat unconditioned response what the people threw into the water this continued for years by the late 1980s word of the large group of stingrays spread among scuba divers who then started feeding them by hand over time the southern stingrays in the area were classically conditioned much like Pavlov's dogs when they hear the sound of a boat engine neutral stimulus that becomes a conditioned stimulus they know that they will get to eat conditioned response as soon as they reached Stingray City over two dozen stingrays surrounded their tour boat the couple slipped into the water with bags of squid the stingrays favorite treat the swarm of stingrays bumped and rubbed up against their legs like hungry cats figure 6.6 kate was able to feed pet and even kiss for luck these amazing creatures then all the squid was gone and so were the stingrays figure 6.6 kate holds a southern stingray at Stingray City in the Cayman Islands these stingrays have been classically conditioned to associate the sound of a boat motor with food provided by tourists credit Katherine Dumper classical conditioning also applies to humans even babies for example Elon buys formula in blue canisters for their six-month-old daughter Angelina whenever Elon takes out a formula container Angelina gets excited tries to reach toward the food and most likely salivates why does Angelina get excited when she sees the formula canister what are the UCS CS UCR and CR here so far all of the examples have involved food but classical conditioning extends beyond the basic need to be fed consider our earlier example of a dog whose owners install an invisible electric dog fence a small electrical shock unconditioned stimulus elicits discomfort unconditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus shock is paired with a neutral stimulus the edge of a yard the dog associates the discomfort unconditioned response with the edge of the yard conditioned stimulus and stays within the set boundaries in this example the edge of the yard elicits fear and anxiety in the dog fear and anxiety are the conditioned response general processes in classical conditioning now that you know how classical conditioning works and have seen several examples let's take a look at some of the general processes involved in classical conditioning the initial period of learning is known as acquisition when an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus during acquisition the neutral stimulus begins to elicit the conditioned response and eventually the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus capable of eliciting the conditioned response by itself timing is important for conditioning to occur typically there should only be a brief interval between presentation of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus depending on what is being conditioned sometimes this interval is as little as 5 seconds chance 2009 however with other types of conditioning the interval can be up to several hours taste aversion is a type of conditioning in which an interval of several hours may pass between the conditioned stimulus something ingested and the unconditioned stimulus nausea or illness here's an example harry went to the carnival he ate a lot of cotton candy and later that night was very sick and threw up the next day his friend offered him a piece of candy he put it into his mouth and started to feel sick and had to spit it out the unconditioned stimulus is eating too much cotton candy the unconditioned response is getting sick and throwing up the conditioned stimulus is the sugary flavor and the conditioned response is Harry feeling nauseous at the taste of sugar how does this occur conditioning based on a single instance and involving an extended time lapse between the event and the negative stimulus research into taste aversion suggests that this response may be an evolutionary adaptation designed to help organisms quickly learn to avoid harmful foods garcia and Rousiniac 1980 Garcia and Choling 1966 not only may this contribute to species survival via natural selection but it may also help us develop strategies for challenges such as helping cancer patients through the nausea induced by certain treatments holmes 1993 jacobson at all 1993 Hutton Baracos and Whismer 2007 Skolan at all 2006 garcia and Colling 1966 showed not only that taste aversions could be conditioned but also that there were biological constraints to learning in their study separate groups of rats were conditioned to associate either a flavor with illness or lights and sounds with illness results showed that all rats exposed to flavor illness pairings learned to avoid the flavor but none of the rats exposed to lights and sounds with illness learned to avoid lights or sounds this added evidence to the idea that classical conditioning could contribute to species survival by helping organisms learn to avoid stimuli that posed real dangers to health and welfare robert Rora demonstrated how powerfully an organism can learn to predict the UCS from the CS take for example the following two situations ari's dad always has dinner on the table every day at six o'clock sarah's mom switches it up so that some days they eat dinner at 6 o'clock some days they eat at 5:00 and other days they eat at 7:00 for Ari 6:00 reliably and consistently predicts dinner so Ari will likely start feeling hungry every day right before 6:00 even if he's had a late snack sarah on the other hand will be less likely to associate 6:00 with dinner since 6:00 does not always predict that dinner is coming rora along with his colleague at Yale University Alan Wagner developed a mathematical formula that could be used to calculate the probability that an association would be learned given the ability of a conditioned stimulus to predict the occurrence of an unconditioned stimulus and other factors today this is known as the Rora Wagner model rora and Wagner 1972 once we have established the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus how do we break that connection and get the dog cat or child to stop responding in Tiger's case imagine what would happen if you stopped using the electric can opener for her food and began to use it only for human food now Tiger would hear the can opener but she would not get food in classical conditioning terms you would be giving the conditioned stimulus but not the unconditioned stimulus pavlov explored this scenario in his experiments with dogs sounding the tone without giving the dogs the meat powder soon the dogs stop responding to the tone extinction is the decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus when presented with the conditioned stimulus alone the dog cat or other organism would show a weaker and weaker response and finally no response in classical conditioning terms there is a gradual weakening and disappearance of the conditioned response what happens when learning is not used for a while when what was learned lies dormant as we just discussed Pavlov found that when he repeatedly presented the bell conditioned stimulus without the meat powder unconditioned stimulus extinction occurred the dogs stopped salivating to the bell however after a couple of hours of resting from this extinction training the dogs again began to salivate when Pavlov rang the bell what do you think would happen with Tiger's behavior if your electric can opener broke and you did not use it for several months when you finally got it fixed and started using it to open Tiger's food again Tiger would remember the association between the can opener and her food she would get excited and run to the kitchen when she heard the sound the behavior of Pavlov's dogs and Tiger illustrates a concept Pavlov called spontaneous recovery the return of a previously extinguished conditioned response following a rest period figure 6.7 figure 6.7 this is the curve of acquisition extinction and spontaneous recovery the rising curve shows the conditioned response quickly getting stronger through the repeated pairing of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus acquisition then the curve decreases which shows how the conditioned response weakens when only the conditioned stimulus is presented extinction after a break or pause from conditioning the conditioned response reappears spontaneous recovery of course these processes also apply in humans for example let's say that every day when you walk to campus an ice cream truck passes your route day after day you hear the truck's music neutral stimulus so you finally stop and purchase a chocolate ice cream bar you take a bite unconditioned stimulus and then your mouth waters unconditioned response this initial period of learning is known as acquisition when you begin to connect the neutral stimulus the sound of the truck and the unconditioned stimulus the taste of the chocolate ice cream in your mouth during acquisition the conditioned response gets stronger and stronger through repeated pairings of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus several days and ice cream bars later you notice that your mouth begins to water conditioned response as soon as you hear the truck's musical jingle even before you bite into the ice cream bar then one day you head down the street you hear the truck's music conditioned stimulus and your mouth waters conditioned response however when you get to the truck you discover that they are all out of ice cream you leave disappointed the next few days you pass by the truck and hear the music but don't stop to get an ice cream bar because you're running late for class you begin to salivate less and less when you hear the music until by the end of the week your mouth no longer waters when you hear the tune this illustrates extinction the conditioned response weakens when only the conditioned stimulus the sound of the truck is presented without being followed by the unconditioned stimulus chocolate ice cream in the mouth then the weekend comes you don't have to go to class so you don't pass the truck monday morning arrives and you take your usual route to campus you round the corner and hear the truck again what do you think happens your mouth begins to water again why after a break from conditioning the conditioned response reappears which indicates spontaneous recovery acquisition and extinction involve the strengthening and weakening respectively of a learned association two other learning processes stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalization are involved in determining which stimuli will trigger learned responses animals including humans need to distinguish between stimuli for example between sounds that predict a threatening event and sounds that do not so that they can respond appropriately such as running away if the sound is threatening when an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar it is called stimulus discrimination in classical conditioning terms the organism demonstrates the conditioned response only to the conditioned stimulus pavlov's dogs discriminated between the basic tone that sounded before they were fed and other tones eg the doorbell because the other sounds did not predict the arrival of food similarly Tiger the cat discriminated between the sound of the can opener and the sound of the electric mixer when the electric mixer is going Tiger is not about to be fed so she does not come running to the kitchen looking for food in our other example Moisha the cancer patient discriminated between oncologists and other types of doctors she learned not to feel ill when visiting doctors for other types of appointments such as her annual physical on the other hand when an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus it is called stimulus generalization the opposite of stimulus discrimination the more similar a stimulus is to the conditioned stimulus the more likely the organism is to give the conditioned response for instance if the electric mixer sounds very similar to the electric can opener tiger may come running after hearing its sound but if you do not feed her following the electric mixer sound and you continue to feed her consistently after the electric can opener sound she will quickly learn to discriminate between the two sounds provided they are sufficiently dissimilar that she can tell them apart in our other example Moisha continued to feel ill whenever visiting other oncologists or other doctors in the same building as her oncologist behaviorism john B watson shown in figure 6.8 is considered the founder of behaviorism behaviorism is a school of thought that arose during the first part of the 20th century which incorporates elements of Pavlov's classical conditioning hunt 2007 in stark contrast with Freud who considered the reasons for behavior to be hidden in the unconscious Watson championed the idea that all behavior can be studied as a simple stimulus response reaction without regard for internal processes watson argued that in order for psychology to become a legitimate science it must shift its concern away from internal mental processes because mental processes cannot be seen or measured instead he asserted that psychology must focus on outward observable behavior that can be measured watson's ideas were influenced by Pavlov's work according to Watson human behavior just like animal behavior is primarily the result of conditioned responses whereas Pavlov's work with dogs involved the conditioning of reflexes Watson believed the same principles could be extended to the conditioning of human emotions watson 1919 in 1920 while chair of the psychology department at John's Hopkins University Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rener conducted research on a baby nicknamed Little Albert rener and Watson's experiments with little Albert demonstrated how fears can be conditioned using classical conditioning through these experiments little Albert was exposed to and conditioned to fear certain things initially he was presented with various neutral stimuli including a rabbit a dog a monkey masks cotton wool and a white rat he was not afraid of any of these things then Watson with the help of Rainer conditioned little Albert to associate these stimuli with an emotion fear for example Watson handed little Albert the white rat and little Albert enjoyed playing with it then Watson made a loud sound by striking a hammer against a metal bar hanging behind little Albert's head each time little Albert touched the rat little Albert was frightened by the sound demonstrating a reflexive fear of sudden loud noises and began to cry watson repeatedly paired the loud sound with the white rat soon little Albert became frightened by the white rat alone in this case what are the UCS CS UCR and CR days later little Albert demonstrated stimulus generalization he became afraid of other furry things a rabbit a furry coat and even a Santa Claus mask figure 6.9 watson had succeeded in conditioning a fear response in Little Albert thus demonstrating that emotions could become conditioned responses it had been Watson's intention to produce a phobia a persistent excessive fear of a specific object or situation through conditioning alone thus countering Freud's view that phobias are caused by deep hidden conflicts in the mind however there is no evidence that little Albert experienced phobias in later years while Watson's research provided new insight into conditioning it would be considered unethical by today's standards figure 6.9 through stimulus generalization little Albert came to fear furry things including Watson in a Santa Claus mask everyday connection advertising and associative learning advertising executives are pros at applying the principles of associative learning think about the car commercials you have seen on television many of them feature an attractive model by associating the model with the car being advertised you come to see the car as being desirable chelini 2008 you may be asking yourself does this advertising technique actually work according to Chelini 2008 men who viewed a car commercial that included an attractive model later rated the car as being faster more appealing and better designed than did men who viewed an advertisement for the same car minus the model have you ever noticed how quickly advertisers cancel contracts with a famous athlete following a scandal as far as the advertiser is concerned that athlete is no longer associated with positive feelings therefore the athlete cannot be used as an unconditioned stimulus to condition the public to associate positive feelings the unconditioned response with their product the conditioned stimulus now that you are aware of how associative learning works see if you can find examples of these types of advertisements on television in magazines or on the internet learning objectives by the end of this section you will be able to define operant conditioning explain the difference between reinforcement and punishment distinguish between reinforcement schedules the previous section of this chapter focused on the type of associative learning known as classical conditioning remember that in classical conditioning something in the environment triggers a reflex automatically and researchers train the organism to react to a different stimulus now we turn to the second type of associative learning operant conditioning in operant conditioning organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence table 6.1 a pleasant consequence makes that behavior more likely to be repeated in the future for example Spirit a dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore does a flip in the air when her trainer blows a whistle the consequence is that she gets a fish psychologist BF Skinner saw that classical conditioning is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited and it doesn't account for new behaviors such as riding a bike he proposed a theory about how such behaviors come about skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior the reinforcements and punishments his idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the law of effect which was first proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndikeke according to the law of effect behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated thorndikeke 1911 essentially if an organism does something that brings about a desired result the organism is more likely to do it again if an organism does something that does not bring about a desired result the organism is less likely to do it again an example of the law of effect is an employment one of the reasons and often the main reason we show up for work is because we get paid to do so if we stop getting paid we will likely stop showing up even if we love our job working with Thorndikeke's law of effect as his foundation Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals mainly rats and pigeons to determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning skinner 1938 he placed these animals inside an operant conditioning chamber which has come to be known as a Skinner box figure 6.10 a Skinner box contains a lever for rats or disc for pigeons that the animal can press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors a recorder counts the number of responses made by the animal figure 6.10 abf Skinner developed operant conditioning for systematic study of how behaviors are strengthened or weakened according to their consequences in a Skinner box a rat presses a lever in an operant conditioning chamber to receive a food reward in discussing operant conditioning we use several everyday words positive negative reinforcement and punishment in a specialized manner in operant conditioning positive and negative do not mean good and bad instead positive means you are adding something and negative means you are taking something away reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior and punishment means you are decreasing a behavior reinforcement can be positive or negative and punishment can also be positive or negative all reinforcers positive or negative increase the likelihood of a behavioral response all punishers positive or negative decrease the likelihood of a behavioral response now let's combine these four terms positive reinforcement negative reinforcement positive punishment and negative punishment table 6.2 reinforcement the most effective way to teach a person or animal a new behavior is with positive reinforcement in positive reinforcement a desirable stimulus is added to increase a behavior for example you tell your 5-year-old son Jerome that if he cleans his room he will get a toy jerome quickly cleans his room because he wants a new art set let's pause for a moment some people might say "Why should I reward my child for doing what is expected?" But in fact we are constantly and consistently rewarded in our lives our paychecks are rewards as our high grades and acceptance into our preferred school being praised for doing a good job and for passing a driver's test is also a reward positive reinforcement as a learning tool is extremely effective it has been found that one of the most effective ways to increase achievement in school districts with below average reading scores was to pay the children to read specifically second grade students in Dallas were paid $2 each time they read a book and passed a short quiz about the book the result was a significant increase in reading comprehension frier 2010 what do you think about this program if Skinner were alive today he would probably think this was a great idea he was a strong proponent of using operant conditioning principles to influence students behavior at school in fact in addition to the Skinner box he also invented what he called a teaching machine that was designed to reward small steps in learning skinner 1961 an early forerunner of computer assisted learning his teaching machine tested students knowledge as they worked through various school subjects if students answered questions correctly they received immediate positive reinforcement and could continue if they answered incorrectly they did not receive any reinforcement the idea was that students would spend additional time studying the material to increase their chance of being reinforced the next time skinner 1961 in negative reinforcement an undesirable stimulus is removed to increase a behavior for example car manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seat belt systems which go beep beep beep until you fasten your seat belt the annoying sound stops when you exhibit the desired behavior increasing the likelihood that you will buckle up in the future negative reinforcement is also used frequently in horse training riders apply pressure by pulling the reins or squeezing their legs and then remove the pressure when the horse performs the desired behavior such as turning or speeding up the pressure is the negative stimulus that the horse wants to remove punishment many people confuse negative reinforcement with punishment in operant conditioning but they are two very different mechanisms remember that reinforcement even when it is negative always increases a behavior in contrast punishment always decreases a behavior in positive punishment you add an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior an example of positive punishment is scolding a student to get the student to stop texting in class in this case a stimulus the reprimand is added in order to decrease the behavior texting in class in negative punishment you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease behavior for example when a child misbehaves a parent can take away a favorite toy in this case a stimulus the toy is removed in order to decrease the behavior punishment especially when it is immediate is one way to decrease undesirable behavior for example imagine your 5-year-old son Brandon runs out into the street to chase a ball you have Brandon right 100 times I will not run into the street positive punishment chances are he won't repeat this behavior while strategies like this are common today in the past children were often subject to physical punishment such as spanking it's important to be aware of some of the drawbacks in using physical punishment on children first punishment may teach fear brandon may become fearful of the street but he also may become fearful of the person who delivered the punishment you his parent similarly children who are punished by teachers may come to fear the teacher and try to avoid school gershoff at all 2010 consequently most schools in the United States have banned corporal punishment second punishment may cause children to become more aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior and delinquency gershoff 2002 they see their parents resort to spanking when they become angry and frustrated so in turn they may act out this same behavior when they become angry and frustrated for example if you spank your child when you are angry with them for their misbehavior they might start hitting their friends when they won't share their toys while positive punishment can be effective in some cases Skinner suggested that the use of punishment should be weighed against the possible negative effects today's psychologists and parenting experts favor reinforcement over punishment they recommend that you catch your child doing something good and reward them for it shaping in his operant conditioning experiments Skinner often used an approach called shaping instead of rewarding only the target behavior in shaping we reward successive approximations of a target behavior why is shaping needed remember that in order for reinforcement to work the organism must first display the behavior shaping is needed because it is extremely unlikely that an organism will display anything but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously in shaping behaviors are broken down into many small achievable steps the specific steps used in the process are the following reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior you will no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response next begin to reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior finally only reinforce the desired behavior shaping is often used in teaching a complex behavior or chain of behaviors skinner used shaping to teach pigeons not only such relatively simple behaviors as pecking a disc in a Skinner box but also many unusual and entertaining behaviors such as turning in circles walking in figure8s and even playing pingpong the technique is commonly used by animal trainers today an important part of shaping is stimulus discrimination recall Pavlov's dogs he trained them to respond to the tone of a bell and not to similar tones or sounds this discrimination is also important in operant conditioning and in shaping behavior it's easy to see how shaping is effective in teaching behaviors to animals but how does shaping work with humans let's consider parents whose goal is to have their child learn to clean his room they use shaping to help him master steps toward the goal instead of performing the entire task they set up these steps and reinforce each step first he cleans up one toy second he cleans up five toys third he chooses whether to pick up 10 toys or put his books and clothes away fourth he cleans up everything except two toys finally he cleans his entire room and ass primary and secondary reinforcers rewards such as stickers praise money toys and more can be used to reinforce learning let's go back to Skinner's rats again how did the rats learn to press the lever in the Skinner box they were rewarded with food each time they pressed the lever for animals food would be an obvious reinforcer what would be a good reinforcer for humans for your child cleaning the room it was the promise of a toy how about Sydney the soccer player if you gave Sydney a piece of candy every time Sydney scored a goal you would be using a primary reinforcer primary reinforcers are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities these kinds of reinforcers are not learned water food sleep shelter sex and touch among others are primary reinforcers pleasure is also a primary reinforcer organisms do not lose their drive for these things for most people jumping in a cool lake on a very hot day would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing the water would cool the person off a physical need as well as provide pleasure a secondary reinforcer has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer praise linked to affection is one example of a secondary reinforcer as when you called out great shot every time Sydney made a goal another example money is only worth something when you can use it to buy other things either things that satisfy basic needs food water shelter all primary reinforcers or other secondary reinforcers if you were on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you had stacks of money the money would not be useful if you could not spend it what about the stickers on the behavior chart they're also secondary reinforcers sometimes instead of stickers on a sticker chart a token is used tokens which are also secondary reinforcers can then be traded in for rewards and prizes entire behavior management systems known as token economies are built around the use of these kinds of token reinforcers token economies have been found to be very effective at modifying behavior in a variety of settings such as schools prisons and mental hospitals for example a study by Adib Sareski in Abkinar 2014 found that use of a token economy increased appropriate social behaviors and reduced inappropriate behaviors in a group of eighth grade students similar studies showed demonstrable gains on behavior and academic achievement for groups ranging from first grade to high school and representing a wide array of abilities and disabilities for example during studies involving younger students when children in the study exhibited appropriate behavior not hitting or pinching they received a quiet hands token when they hit or pinched they lost a token the children could then exchange specified amounts of tokens for minutes of play time everyday connection behavior modification in children parents and teachers often use behavior modification to change a child's behavior behavior modification uses the principles of operant conditioning to accomplish behavior change so that undesirable behaviors are switched for more socially acceptable ones some teachers and parents create a sticker chart in which several behaviors are listed figure 6.11 sticker charts are a form of token economies as described in the text each time children perform the behavior they get a sticker and after a certain number of stickers they get a prize or reinforcer the goal is to increase acceptable behaviors and decrease misbehavior remember it is best to reinforce desired behaviors rather than to use punishment in the classroom the teacher can reinforce a wide range of behaviors from students raising their hands to walking quietly in the hall to turning in their homework at home parents might create a behavior chart that rewards children for things such as putting away toys brushing their teeth and helping with dinner in order for behavior modification to be effective the reinforcement needs to be connected with the behavior the reinforcement must matter to the child and be done consistently figure 6.11 sticker charts are a form of positive reinforcement and a tool for behavior modification once this child earns a certain number of stickers for demonstrating a desired behavior she will be rewarded with a trip to the ice cream parlor credit Abigail Bachelder timeout is another popular technique used in behavior modification with children it operates on the principle of negative punishment when a child demonstrates an undesirable behavior they are removed from the desirable activity at hand figure 6.12 for example say that Sophia and her brother Mario are playing with building blocks sophia throws some blocks at her brother so you give her a warning that she will go to timeout if she does it again a few minutes later she throws more blocks at Mario you remove Sophia from the room for a few minutes when she comes back she doesn't throw blocks there are several important points that you should know if you plan to implement timeout as a behavior modification technique first make sure the child is being removed from a desirable activity and placed in a less desirable location if the activity is something undesirable for the child this technique will backfire because it is more enjoyable for the child to be removed from the activity second the length of the timeout is important the general rule of thumb is 1 minute for each year of the child's age sophia is five therefore she sits in a timeout for five minutes setting a timer helps children know how long they have to sit in timeout finally as a caregiver keep several guidelines in mind over the course of a timeout remain calm when directing your child to timeout ignore your child during timeout because caregiver attention may reinforce misbehavior and give the child a hug or a kind word when timeout is over figure 6.12 timeout is a popular form of negative punishment used by caregivers when a child misbehaves they are removed from a desirable activity in an effort to decrease the unwanted behavior for example A a child might be playing on the playground with friends and push another child b the child who misbehaved would then be removed from the activity for a short period of time reinforcement schedules remember the best way to teach a person or animal a behavior is to use positive reinforcement for example Skinner used positive reinforcement to teach rats to press a lever in a Skinner box at first the rat might randomly hit the lever while exploring the box and out come a pellet of food after eating the pellet what do you think the hungry rat did next it hit the lever again and received another pellet of food each time the rat hit the lever a pellet of food came out when an organism receives a reinforcer each time it displays a behavior it is called continuous reinforcement this reinforcement schedule is the quickest way to teach someone a behavior and it is especially effective in training a new behavior let's look back at the dog that was learning to sit earlier in the chapter now each time he sits you give him a treat timing is important here you will be most successful if you present the reinforcer immediately after he sits so that he can make an association between the target behavior sitting and the consequence getting a treat once a behavior is trained researchers and trainers often turn to another type of reinforcement schedule partial reinforcement in partial reinforcement also referred to as intermittent reinforcement the person or animal does not get reinforced every time they perform the desired behavior there are several different types of partial reinforcement schedules table 6.3 these schedules are described as either fixed or variable and is either interval or ratio fixed refers to the number of responses between reinforcements or the amount of time between reinforcements which is set and unchanging variable refers to the number of responses or amount of time between reinforcements which varies or changes interval means the schedule is based on the time between reinforcements and ratio means the schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements now let's combine these four terms a fixed interval reinforcement schedule is when behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time for example June underos major surgery in a hospital during recovery they are expected to experience pain and will require prescription medications for pain relief june is given an IV drip with a patient controlled painkiller their doctor sets a limit one dose per hour june pushes a button when pain becomes difficult and they receive a dose of medication since the reward pain relief only occurs on a fixed interval there is no point in exhibiting the behavior when it will not be rewarded with a variable interval reinforcement schedule the person or animal gets the reinforcement based on varying amounts of time which are unpredictable say that Manuel is the manager at a fast food restaurant every once in a while someone from the quality control division comes to Manuel's restaurant if the restaurant is clean and the service is fast everyone on that shift earns a $20 bonus manuel never knows when a quality control person will show up so he always tries to keep the restaurant clean and ensures that his employees provide prompt and courteous service his productivity regarding prompt service and keeping a clean restaurant are steady because he wants his crew to earn the bonus with a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule there are a set number of responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded carla sells glasses at an eyeglass store and she earns a commission every time she sells a pair of glasses she always tries to sell people more pairs of glasses including prescription sunglasses or a backup pair so she can increase her commission she does not care if the person really needs the prescription sunglasses carla just wants her bonus the quality of what Carla sells does not matter because her commission is not based on quality it's only based on the number of pairs sold this distinction in the quality of performance can help determine which reinforcement method is most appropriate for a particular situation fixed ratios are better suited to optimize the quantity of output whereas a fixed interval in which the reward is not quantity based can lead to a higher quality of output in a variable ratio reinforcement schedule the number of responses needed for a reward varies this is the most powerful partial reinforcement schedule an example of the variable ratio reinforcement schedule is gambling imagine that Sarah generally a smart thrifty woman visits Las Vegas for the first time she is not a gambler but out of curiosity she puts a quarter into the slot machine and then another and another nothing happens $2 and quarters later her curiosity is fading and she is just about to quit but then the machine lights up bells go off and Sarah gets 50 quarters back that's more like it sarah gets back to inserting quarters with renewed interest and a few minutes later she has used up all her gains and is $10 in the hole now might be a sensible time to quit and yet she keeps putting money into the slot machine because she never knows when the next reinforcement is coming she keeps thinking that with the next quarter she could win $50 or $100 or even more because the reinforcement schedule in most types of gambling has a variable ratio schedule people keep trying and hoping that the next time they will win big this is one of the reasons that gambling is so addictive and so resistant to extinction in operant conditioning extinction of a reinforced behavior occurs at some point after reinforcement stops and the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule in a variable ratio schedule the point of extinction comes very slowly as described above but in the other reinforcement schedules extinction may come quickly for example if June presses the button for the pain relief medication before the allotted time the doctor has approved no medication is administered they are on a fixed interval reinforcement schedule dosed hourly so extinction occurs quickly when reinforcement doesn't come at the expected time among the reinforcement schedules variable ratio is the most productive and the most resistant to extinction fixed interval is the least productive and the easiest to extinguish figure 6.13 figure 6.13 the four reinforcement schedules yield different response patterns the variable ratio schedule is unpredictable and yields high and steady response rates with little if any pause after reinforcement eg gambler a fixed ratio schedule is predictable and produces a high response rate with a short pause after reinforcement eg eyeglass saleswoman the variable interval schedule is unpredictable and produces a moderate steady response rate eg restaurant manager the fixed interval schedule yields a scallop-shaped response pattern reflecting a significant pause after reinforcement eg surgery patient connect the concepts gambling and the brain skinner 1953 stated if the gambling establishment cannot persuade a patron to turn over money with no return it may achieve the same effect by returning part of the patrons money on a variable ratio schedule page 397 skinner uses gambling as an example of the power of the variable ratio reinforcement schedule for maintaining behavior even during long periods without any reinforcement in fact Skinner was so confident in his knowledge of gambling addiction that he even claimed he could turn a pigeon into a pathological gambler skinner's Utopia 1971 it is indeed true that variable ratio schedules keep behavior quite persistent just imagine the frequency of a child's tantrums if a parent gives in even once to the behavior the occasional reward makes it almost impossible to stop the behavior recent research in rats has failed to support Skinner's idea that training on variable ratio schedules alone causes pathological gambling lascowski at all 2019 however other research suggests that gambling does seem to work on the brain in the same way as most addictive drugs and so there may be some combination of brain chemistry and reinforcement schedule that could lead to problem gambling figure 6.14 specifically modern research shows the connection between gambling and the activation of the reward centers of the brain that use the neurotransmitter brain chemical dopamine merchant Clark 2016 interestingly gamblers don't even have to win to experience the rush of dopamine in the brain near misses or almost winning but not actually winning also have been shown to increase activity in the vententral striatam and other brain reward centers that use dopamine jason Clark 2010 these brain effects are almost identical to those produced by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin merchant Clark 2016 based on the neuroscientific evidence showing these similarities the DSM5 now considers gambling an addiction while earlier versions of the DSM classified gambling as an impulse control disorder figure 6.14 some research suggests that pathological gamblers use gambling to compensate for abnormally low levels of the hormone norepinephrine which is associated with stress and is secreted in moments of arousal and thrill credit Ted Murphy in addition to dopamine gambling also appears to involve other neurotransmitters including norepinephrine and serotonin potenza 2013 norepinephrine is secreted when a person feels stress arousal or thrill it may be that pathological gamblers use gambling to increase their levels of this neurotransmitter deficiencies in serotonin might also contribute to compulsive behavior including a gambling addiction patenza 2013 it may be that pathological gamblers brains are different than those of other people and perhaps this difference may somehow have led to their gambling addiction as these studies seem to suggest however it is very difficult to ascertain the cause because it is impossible to conduct a true experiment it would be unethical to try to turn randomly assigned participants into problem gamblers therefore it may be that causation actually moves in the opposite direction perhaps the act of gambling somehow changes neurotransmitter levels in some gamblers brains it also is possible that some overlooked factor or confounding variable played a role in both the gambling addiction and the differences in brain chemistry cognition and latent learning strict behaviorists like Watson and Skinner focused exclusively on studying behavior rather than cognition such as thoughts and expectations in fact Skinner was such a staunch believer that cognition didn't matter that his ideas were considered radical behaviorism skinner considered the mind a black box something completely unknowable and therefore something not to be studied however another behaviorist Edward C tolman had a different opinion tolman's experiments with rats demonstrated that organisms can learn even if they do not receive immediate reinforcement tolman and Hanzik 1930 Tolman Richie and Kaish 1946 this finding was in conflict with the prevailing idea at the time that reinforcement must be immediate in order for learning to occur thus suggesting a cognitive aspect to learning in the experiments Tolman placed hungry rats in a maze with no reward for finding their way through it he also studied a comparison group that was rewarded with food at the end of the maze as the unreinforced rats explored the maze they developed a cognitive map a mental picture of the layout of the maze figure 6.15 after 10 sessions in the maze without reinforcement food was placed in a goal box at the end of the maze as soon as the rats became aware of the food they were able to find their way through the maze quickly just as quickly as the comparison group which had been rewarded with food all along this is known as latent learning learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it figure 6.15 psychologist Edward Tolman found that rats use cognitive maps to navigate through a maze have you ever worked your way through various levels on a video game you learned when to turn left or right move up or down in that case you were relying on a cognitive map just like the rats in a maze latent learning also occurs in humans children may learn by watching the actions of their parents but only demonstrated at a later date when the learned material is needed for example suppose that Ravi's dad drives him to school every day in this way Ravi learns the route from his house to his school but he's never driven there himself so he has not had a chance to demonstrate that he's learned the way one morning Ravi's dad has to leave early for a meeting so he can't drive Ravi to school instead Ravi follows the same route on his bike that his dad would have taken in the car this demonstrates latent learning ravi had learned the route to school but had no need to demonstrate this knowledge earlier everyday connection this place is like a maze have you ever gotten lost in a building and couldn't find your way back out while that can be frustrating you're not alone at one time or another we've all gotten lost in places like a museum hospital or university library whenever we go someplace new we build a mental representation or cognitive map of the location as Tolman's rats built a cognitive map of their maze however some buildings are confusing because they include many areas that look alike or have short lines of sight because of this it's often difficult to predict what's around a corner or decide whether to turn left or right to get out of a building psychologist Laura Carlson 2010 suggests that what we place in our cognitive map can impact our success in navigating through the environment she suggests that paying attention to specific features upon entering a building such as a picture on the wall a fountain a statue or an escalator adds information to our cognitive map that can be used later to help find our way out of the building learning objectives by the end of this section you will be able to define observational learning discuss the steps in the modeling process explain the pro-social and antisocial effects of observational learning previous sections of this chapter focused on classical and operant conditioning which are forms of associative learning in observational learning we learn by watching others and then imitating or modeling what they do or say for instance have you ever gone to YouTube to find a video showing you how to do something the individuals performing the imitated behavior are called models research suggests that this imitative learning involves a specific type of neuron called a mirror neuron hickok 2010 Rizelotti Fidiga Fagasi and Galiza 2002 Rizelotti Fagasi and Galiz 2006 humans and other animals are capable of observational learning for example in a study of social learning in chimpanzees researchers gave juice boxes with straws to two groups of captive chimpanzees the first group dipped the straw into the juice box and then sucked on the small amount of juice at the end of the straw the second group sucked through the straw directly getting much more juice when the first group the dippers observed the second group the suckers what do you think happened all of the dippers in the first group switched to sucking through the straws directly by simply observing the other chimps and modeling their behavior they learned that this was a more efficient method of getting juice yamamoto Humelay and Tanaka 2013 figure 6.16 this spider monkey learned to drink water from a plastic bottle by seeing the behavior modeled by a human credit US Air Force Senior Airman Casey Close imitation is sometimes called the highest form of flattery but consider Clare's experience with observational learning clare's 9-year-old son Jay was getting into trouble at school and was defiant at home clare feared that Jay would end up like her brothers two of whom were in prison one day after yet another bad day at school and another negative note from the teacher Clare at her wits end beat her son with a belt to get him to behave later that night as she put her children to bed Clare witnessed her four-year-old daughter Anna take a belt to her teddy bear and whip it clare was horrified realizing that Anna was imitating her mother it was then that Clare knew she wanted to discipline her children in a different manner like Tolman whose experiments with rats suggested a cognitive component to learning psychologist Albert Bandura's ideas about learning were different from those of strict behaviorists bura and other researchers proposed a brand of behaviorism called social learning theory which took cognitive processes into account according to Bura pure behaviorism could not explain why learning can take place in the absence of external reinforcement he felt that internal mental states must also have a role in learning and that observational learning involves much more than imitation in imitation a person simply copies what the model does observational learning is much more complex according to Lefrois 2012 there are several ways that observational learning can occur you learn a new response after watching your coworker get chewed out by your boss for coming in late you start leaving home 10 minutes earlier so that you won't be late you choose whether or not to imitate the model depending on what you saw happen to the model remember Julian and his father when learning to surf Julian might watch how his father pops up successfully on his surfboard and then attempt to do the same thing on the other hand Julian might learn not to touch a hot stove after watching his father get burned on a stove you learn a general rule that you can apply to other situations hea Bura identified three kinds of models live verbal and symbolic a live model demonstrates a behavior in person as when Ben stood up on his surfboard so that Julian could see how he did it a verbal instructional model does not perform the behavior but instead explains or describes the behavior as when a soccer coach tells his young players to kick the ball with the side of the foot not with the toe a symbolic model can be fictional characters or real people who demonstrate behaviors in books movies television shows video games or internet sources figure 6.17 figure 6.17A yoga students learn by observation as their yoga instructor demonstrates the correct stance and movement for her students live model B models don't have to be present for learning to occur through symbolic modeling this child can learn a behavior by watching someone demonstrate it on television steps in the modeling process of course we don't learn a behavior simply by observing a model bandura describes specific steps in the process of modeling that must be followed if learning is to be successful attention retention reproduction and motivation first you must be focused on what the model is doing you have to pay attention next you must be able to retain or remember what you observed this is retention then you must be able to perform the behavior that you observed and committed to memory this is reproduction finally you must have motivation you need to want to copy the behavior and whether or not you are motivated depends on what happened to the model if you saw that the model was reinforced for their behavior you will be more motivated to copy them this is known as vicarious reinforcement on the other hand if you observe the model being punished you would be less motivated to copy them this is called vicarious punishment for example imagine that four-year-old Allison watched her older sister Caitlyn playing in their mother's makeup and then saw Caitlyn get a timeout when their mother came in after their mother left the room Allison was tempted to play in the makeup but she did not want to get a timeout from her mother what do you think she did once you actually demonstrate the new behavior the reinforcement you receive plays a part in whether or not you will repeat the behavior bandura researched modeling behavior particularly children's modeling of adults aggressive and violent behaviors bura Ross and Ross 1961 he conducted an experiment with a 5-ft inflatable doll that he called a Bobo doll in the experiment children's aggressive behavior was influenced by whether the teacher was punished for her behavior in one scenario a teacher acted aggressively with the doll hitting throwing and even punching the doll while a child watched there were two types of responses by the children to the teacher's behavior when the teacher was punished for her bad behavior the children decreased their tendency to act as she had when the teacher was praised or ignored and not punished for her behavior the children imitated what she did and even what she said they punched kicked and yelled at the doll what are the implications of this study bandura concluded that we watch and learn and that this learning can have both pro-social and antisocial effects pro-social positive models can be used to encourage socially acceptable behavior parents in particular should take note of this finding if you want your children to read then read to them let them see you reading keep books in your home talk about your favorite books if you want your children to be healthy then let them see you eat right and exercise and spend time engaging in physical fitness activities together the same holds true for qualities like kindness courtesy and honesty the main idea is that children observe and learn from their parents even their parents' morals so be consistent and toss out the old adage do as I say not as I do because children tend to copy what you do instead of what you say besides parents many public figures such as Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi are viewed as pro-social models who are able to inspire global social change can you think of someone who has been a pro-social model in your life the antisocial effects of observational learning are also worth mentioning as you saw from the example of Clare at the beginning of this section her daughter viewed Clare's aggressive behavior and copied it research suggests that this may help to explain why victims of abuse often grow up to be abusers themselves morell Kristoff and Henning 2007 in fact about 30% of child abuse victims become abusive parents us Department of Health and Human Services 2013 we tend to do what we know children who grow up witnessing their parents deal with anger and frustration through violent and aggressive acts often learn to behave in that manner themselves some studies suggest that violent television shows movies and video games may also have antisocial effects figure 6.18 although further research needs to be done to understand the correlational and causational aspects of media violence and behavior some studies have found a link between viewing violence and aggression seen in children anderson and Gentile 2008 Kersh 2010 Miller Grabel Thomas Burman and Graham Burman 2012 these findings may not be surprising given that a child graduating from high school has been exposed to around 200,000 violent acts including murder robbery torture bombings beatings and rape through various forms of media houston Edall 1992 not only might viewing media violence affect aggressive behavior by teaching people to act that way in real life situations but it has also been suggested that repeated exposure to violent acts also desensitizes people to it psychologists are working to understand this dynamic figure 6.18 can viewing violent media make us violent psychological researchers study this topic what do you think violent media and aggression does watching violent media or playing violent video games cause aggression albert Bura's early study suggested television violence increased aggression in children and more recent studies support these findings for example research by Craig Anderson and colleagues Anderson Bushman Donnerstein Hummer and Warbertton 2015 anderson at all 2010 Bushman at all 2016 found extensive evidence to suggest a causal link between hours of exposure to violent media and aggressive thoughts and behaviors however studies by Christopher Ferguson and others suggests that while there may be a link between violent media exposure and aggression research to date has not accounted for other risk factors for aggression including mental health and family life ferguson 2011 Gentile 2016 what do you think